//- 💫 DOCS > API > TOP-LEVEL > COMPATIBILITY

p
    |  All Python code is written in an
    |  #[strong intersection of Python 2 and Python 3]. This is easy in Cython,
    |  but somewhat ugly in Python. Logic that deals with Python or platform
    |  compatibility only lives in #[code spacy.compat]. To distinguish them from
    |  the builtin functions, replacement functions are suffixed with an
    |  underscore, e.e #[code unicode_].

+aside-code("Example").
    from spacy.compat import unicode_

    compatible_unicode = unicode_('hello world')

+table(["Name", "Python 2", "Python 3"])
    +row
        +cell #[code compat.bytes_]
        +cell #[code str]
        +cell #[code bytes]

    +row
        +cell #[code compat.unicode_]
        +cell #[code unicode]
        +cell #[code str]

    +row
        +cell #[code compat.basestring_]
        +cell #[code basestring]
        +cell #[code str]

    +row
        +cell #[code compat.input_]
        +cell #[code raw_input]
        +cell #[code input]

    +row
        +cell #[code compat.path2str]
        +cell #[code str(path)] with #[code .decode('utf8')]
        +cell #[code str(path)]

+h(3, "is_config") compat.is_config
    +tag function

p
    |  Check if a specific configuration of Python version and operating system
    |  matches the user's setup. Mostly used to display targeted error messages.

+aside-code("Example").
    from spacy.compat import is_config

    if is_config(python2=True, windows=True):
        print("You are using Python 2 on Windows.")

+table(["Name", "Type", "Description"])
    +row
        +cell #[code python2]
        +cell bool
        +cell spaCy is executed with Python 2.x.

    +row
        +cell #[code python3]
        +cell bool
        +cell spaCy is executed with Python 3.x.

    +row
        +cell #[code windows]
        +cell bool
        +cell spaCy is executed on Windows.

    +row
        +cell #[code linux]
        +cell bool
        +cell spaCy is executed on Linux.

    +row
        +cell #[code osx]
        +cell bool
        +cell spaCy is executed on OS X or macOS.

    +row("foot")
        +cell returns
        +cell bool
        +cell Whether the specified configuration matches the user's platform.